r6a.24xlarge

Analysis

The r6a.24xlarge is a memory optimized instance in the r6a series with 96 vCPUs and 768 GiB of memory on AMD EPYC 7R13 (up to 3.6 GHz), which makes it memory-heavy at 8 GiB of memory per vCPU.

It costs the same as the older r5a.24xlarge on AMD EPYC 7571, so the move up a generation is free. The newer r7a.24xlarge on AMD EPYC 9R14 is 34% dearer at $7.30/hour.

Running it in Mumbai instead of Frankfurt saves $2,288 a month per instance: $3.43/hour against $6.57/hour, a 91% spread. It is not offered in São Paulo, so plan around that if you need a presence there.

At $5.44/hour on demand in US East (N. Virginia), about $3,974 a month, the r6a.24xlarge is one of the cheaper ways to buy memory optimized capacity: only 8% of the 385 current memory optimized types cost less per vCPU-hour than its $0.0567.

It is the cheapest of the 5 processor variants AWS sells at this size and generation. The r6idn.24xlarge on Intel Xeon 8375C (Ice Lake) costs 72% more, and the r6i.24xlarge, the r6id.24xlarge and the r6in.24xlarge also sit above it.

It is size 8 of 10 in the r6a series. Stepping up to the r6a.32xlarge gives 128 vCPUs and 1024 GiB for $1,325 more a month. Dropping to the r6a.16xlarge saves $1,325 a month.